The Alk-align Team at Carbon to Sea
Posted: June 14, 2023
By: Mark Campbell
It’s accepted by most people now that if we’re going to dramatically slow the planet’s warming, we need to aggressively reduce emissions and remove carbon from the atmosphere. One big question is how best to remove that carbon. A new grant to Dalhousie will help answer that – and may prove that the ocean is a big part of the solution.
Carbon to Sea was created to look at how OAE can provide a safe, cost-effective, and scalable way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The Ocean Alk-align grant to Dalhousie is the largest funding commitment that the non-profit has made to date.
“If we’re going to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to aggressively reduce emissions and remove carbon from the atmosphere,” said Mike Schroepfer, Board Chair of Carbon to Sea and co-founder of Additional Ventures, a purpose-driven organization that started and spun out Carbon to Sea. “Scientists agree that OAE has enormous potential to permanently remove and store carbon and more funding for research is needed. We are here to respond to the call for research funding and answer basic scientific questions about the safety and efficacy of various approaches to OAE. If we find that OAE can be applied at scale, we can unlock one of the most efficient, cost-effective approaches to carbon dioxide removal (CDR) for humanity. I’m grateful to the whole network of funders, researchers, partners, and the amazing team at Carbon to Sea for their bold commitment to pursue this work.”
Like giving the ocean a giant antacid
Sometimes compared to giving the ocean an antacid, OAE is a carbon dioxide removal approach that strengthens the ocean’s natural ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere as explained in this video. Although studies suggest that OAE could be effective, more research is crucial to better understand its full potential. Carbon to Sea hopes to gain those insights by funding projects such as Ocean Alk-align.
The scale required for successful removal of CO2 from the atmosphere is significant. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the world must remove at least 100 billion tonnes this century to meet warming targets. Given that the ocean holds four times more CO2 than the earth’s forests, it offers a strong opportunity to make real progress on climate change if OAE can amplify its superpower.
“The math is relatively simple: we need to pair emissions reduction with environmentally responsible CDR solutions. My interest in OAE is rooted in a deep love of the ocean, a recognition that climate change is a catastrophe for marine ecosystems, and the belief that our ocean can be a part of the solution,” said Antonius Gagern, Ph.D., Executive Director of Carbon to Sea. “The growing scientific community working on OAE includes the best minds across a range of disciplines, from biogeochemistry to ocean engineering, and is focused on systematically testing this hypothesis.”
Dal leading research consortium
That optimism is shared by Dr. Katja Fennel, chair of Dalhousie’s Department of Oceanography and chief principal investigator for the Ocean Alk-align project. She will facilitate collaborations between Dalhousie and a global team from some of the world’s foremost centres of ocean research, including GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Hamburg University in Germany, and University of Tasmania and Southern Cross University in Australia.
